At the same time, she wanted to take care of him more than she’d wanted anything in her life—except their baby. Sliding her hands slowly up his spine, she threaded her hands through his hair and gently tilted his head back until the shower spray could wash over it.
Lucas’s eyes sprang open and she smiled softly at him, reassuringly, before reaching behind him and grabbing hold of his shampoo bottle. She squirted some into her palm and then carefully rubbed her two hands together before lifting them to his hair.
She shampooed him gently, concentrating more on relaxation than cleanliness. At first, he stood stiff, watching her with careful eyes. But as she dug her thumbs into the base of his neck, he groaned a little and let his head fall back again.
That’s when she knew she had him.
She massaged his scalp for another minute or so, then eased his head back under the water. She made sure to keep her fingers relaxed as she soothingly stroked his scalp and rinsed each strand of hair. Then she reached for his conditioner, and did the same thing all over again.
* * *
IT WAS ALL LUCAS COULD DO not to dissolve into a boneless mass of quivering arousal as Kara stroked her long, sexy fingers through his hair. He knew she was trying to relax him, and to a certain extent it was working—he no longer had the blinding headache that had been plaguing him for hours. But at the same time, she was making him crazy, her sweet, sensual touch setting every nerve ending in his body on fire.
When she nudged him, he obligingly tilted his head back so that the warm water could slowly stream over his head and down his body. His very aroused body that was growing harder with each touch of her talented fingers. He knew she felt his arousal nestled against her stomach, but she didn’t react to it. Instead, she just kept rinsing out the conditioner, which for some reason, only made him hotter.
When, after an eternity, his hair had finally been rinsed clean, Kara grabbed a bottle of shower gel and squirted some onto her hands. She rubbed them together, worked up a nice lather and then slowly began to soap him up. He nearly lost his mind before she’d moved more than an inch or two.
Her hands slid down his neck, over the width of his shoulders and down this spine to the small of his back, where she rubbed and rubbed until he could feel the knots he’d carried there all day slowly dissolving. Then she worked her way back up his spine, kneading and massaging until he felt—conversely—more relaxed and more inflamed than he could ever remember being in his life.
She spent a long time on his shoulders and upper back. He tried to stop her, to return the favor, but she just laughed, low and sexy, and swatted his hands away. Then got more soap before trailing her talented fingers over his neck and collarbone to his chest and rib cage. She circled his nipples with her soap-slicked fingers, making him nearly insane with the need to be inside her.
And then she moved lower, tickling his navel and caressing his hips before reaching between them and wrapping her hand around his hard, aching length. His eyes nearly crossed as she stroked him, up and down, up and down. When her thumb swept over his tip, circling him again and again, he lost it completely. He pulled her against him and whispered, “Kara,” right before he bent his head and took her mouth with his own.
The moment Kara’s lips touched his, Lucas felt the tension in his body just melt away. The clinic, his issues with his mother, even all of Lisa’s problems, just rolled off him. They didn’t disappear, obviously, but the smell and taste and feel of Kara took him over, distanced him from them.
Even if it was just for a little while, he was grateful. And determined to enjoy every second of it.
His hands tightened in her crazy curls and he relished the feel of them beneath his hands. Warm and wet from the water pouring over both of them, they wrapped themselves around his fingers with a mind of their own, chaining him to Kara and, more importantly, Kara to him.
It wouldn’t last. He was smart enough to know that, soon enough, Kara would be running off to some far-flung corner of the globe. But she was here, now, in his arms, and he wasn’t going to let her go until he had to.
She breathed out a soft, ragged sigh that parted her lips and had every nerve ending in his body standing up and taking notice. Taking advantage of the opening, he slipped his tongue inside her mouth and tangled it around her own. She tasted sweet, like cream and tart strawberries.
He wanted more of her, needed more of her, and she must have felt the same way, because her hands went from massaging to clinging in an instant. Her nails dug into the muscles of his upper back, and lust roared through him at the sweet pain of it. Part of him wanted to lift her up, press her back against the shower wall and plunge into her again and again and again, until they were both so sated and exhausted that the rest of the world no longer mattered. But it had been so long since he’d held her, since he’d kissed her and touched her, that he also wanted to take his time. To explore every sweet inch of her until she was screaming for him to take her.
Deciding the second option was definitely the way to go, he backed off the kiss. Turned it slow and soft and leisurely as he stroked his tongue over her lower lip, lingering at the upturned corners of her mouth.
She whimpered, pressed closer, and he relished her responsiveness as he eased them both into the shower spray, rinsing away the last remnants of soap. They might have been friends for seventeen years and lovers for only one night, but when he touched her she lit up completely. It was both humbling and exhilarating.
Of course, it was also frustrating as hell. Which was why, when Kara pulled her mouth from his and started licking her way down his neck, he didn’t put up much of a struggle. And when her mouth skimmed over his chest, stopping to toy with first one of his nipples and then the other, he lost all sense of restraint. He cupped the back of her head and held her in place as streaks of lightning sizzled through him.
Not that Kara seemed to mind. She nuzzled and licked her way down his chest before once again dropping to her knees before him. Wrapping her arms around his upper thighs, she pressed hot, openmouthed kisses over his abdomen, then paused to tickle his navel with her tongue. He gasped, tensed, and she laughed a little before continuing her downward path, kissing along the light dusting of hair that ran from his belly button to his groin.
By the time she reached the end of the trail, he was gasping, panting. His knees felt like Jell-O and he leaned back against the tiled wall of the shower, bracing himself against it even as he tangled his fingers in her hair and yanked her forward until her mouth closed gently, hotly, around him.
There was a part of him that was horrified by the rough way he was handling her, the way he’d yanked her forward and shoved himself into her mouth. But she was making crazy, sexy sounds—like she was enjoying every second of it—and the vibration of them was working its way through them, making him crazy. Still, he tried to move so that she could pull him even deeper.
And when she moaned deep in her throat, her tongue stroking up and down the length of him, he forgot to be concerned. Forgot to be polite. Instead, he leaned his head back against the shower wall, closed his eyes and just enjoyed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
KARA TILTED HER HEAD SO that she could see all of Lucas as she continued to go down on him. He looked amazing, the muscles of his chest and abdomen tense and standing out in stark definition, even as his face was more relaxed than she had seen it in a very long time.
The look of him, the feel and sound and taste of him, was driving her crazy.
Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones, maybe it was the joy of making love to Lucas once again, but she was on fire, her body hotter than she could ever remember it being. She wanted to stand, to wrap a leg around him and let him plunge deep inside of her until they both came. Then she wanted to do it all over again.
But that wasn’t to be. The doctor hadn’t prohibited sex, probably because she figured there was no more damage to be done to the baby. That it was just a matter of time. But Kara refused to believe that, and she refused to take any more chances with her baby’s life than she had already. Which meant she could kneel here as long as she wanted, savoring every inch of Lucas as she brought him to orgasm, but there was no way she could let him do the same to her. She wouldn’t take the chance of letting him make love to her, even though she was practically desperate for the feel of him inside of her.
Determined to make him feel good, even if she couldn’t let him reciprocate, she slowly lifted and lowered her mouth along his shaft, sucking gently while her tongue flicked back and forth across the small bundle of nerves centered on the bottom of the tip.
Lucas’s fingers tightened in her hair and he moaned, but she was relentless. Slowly, oh, so slowly, she took all of him in her mouth, held him there. Then pulled back before doing it a second, then a third time as she swirled her tongue around and around him, savoring the musky, masculine taste of him.
He groaned again, and she glanced up at him, met his sexy, heavy-lidded eyes that got even darker when he realized she was looking. He thrust against her, his eyes focused on the way he slid back and forth between her lips. It must have done something for him, because suddenly he began thrusting harder and deeper against her.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped as he seized control of her head, bobbing it up and down in time to his thrusts. “I’m sorry, baby. I can’t stop. I need—”
He broke off, gasped, as she intended him to, when she dug her nails deep into the flexing muscles of his buttocks. And when she moaned her approval deep in her throat, he went a little crazy. Which was more than fine with her. She reached between them, stroked the sensitive spot at the back of his testicles at the same time she rubbed the bottom of her tongue along the tender underside of his shaft.
* * *
LUCAS TRIED TO SPEAK, tried to breathe, but he couldn’t do either as Kara tormented him with her wicked, wild mouth. He knew he was close, knew if she kept it up he was going to lose it completely and he tried to pull back. Tried to warn her.
“Kara, baby, I’m going to—”
She nodded her head, pulled him even more tightly inside of her as she hummed deep in her throat. The ensuing vibrations nearly made him blind as he fought his release. He didn’t want to come this way. He wanted to be inside of her, her nipple in his mouth and her warm body clenching all around him, when he gave into his release. Again he tried to pull back, and again Kara refused to let him go. And when she used her tongue on him yet again, it sent him into sensory overload, his entire body spiraling out of his control. With a long, deep groan, he emptied himself into her mouth in the most intense orgasm of his life.
He expected her to draw back, to let go of him, but she held on through it all, taking all he had to give her. His knees grew weak, his vision gray, and he stumbled a little until he sank his ass down onto the shower bench that was just to the right of where he’d been standing.
Kara laughed a little as she finally let him go, and he pulled her up until she was straddling him, her beautiful breasts level with his mouth. He was exhausted, his body all but numb from the power of his climax. But he’d have to be dead and buried not to enjoy the sight of Kara astride him, all hot and sexy and tousled. Her beautiful red curls were crazy, her cheeks flushed, her lips red swollen as she reached forward and ran a gentle hand down his cheek. He turned his head, nipped gently at the soft, fleshy pad beneath her thumb.
Her breath caught in her throat, her eyes growing hazy, and he slipped a hand between their bodies to rub at her clit. Then he stroked his fingers down and over the soft folds of her sex, checking to make sure that she was ready for him.
She was hot and wet, and smelled so good he couldn’t resist lifting her up, so that she was standing, and burying his face against her. She moaned, tensed against his mouth as he licked his way over her mons to the very heart of her. He’d spent weeks, months, dreaming of how she’d tasted and he wanted it again. Wanted to immerse himself in her as she came all over his tongue.
But suddenly she tensed against him, started to struggle. He stared at her in confusion. “What’s wrong, darlin’?”
“The baby. I can’t—”
“Oh, right.” He cursed himself for being an idiot, for taking all this from her when he wouldn’t be able to reciprocate. He really was the selfish, unfeeling bastard his mother had named him. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t be sorry. I loved every second of it.”
Lucas turned off the water and reached for one of the towels he kept draped over the shower glass. He wrapped it around her before grabbing a second one and draping it around his own hips. Then he lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bed.
Once there, he laid her gently on the navy-blue comforter before stretching out beside her. Her lips curved softly and he reached for the towel, opening it so that her long, beautiful body was bared to him.
For long seconds, he just looked at her, admiring the way the lamplight played over sun-kissed skin, casting shadows in the most interesting places. But when he leaned forward and kissed the hollow of her throat—a place he had discovered months ago—she stiffened.
“I told you.”
“I know. I’m just kissing you, Kara. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt the baby, either.”
She relaxed slowly, and he curved an arm over her waist, pulling her body flush against his. It had been a crappy day, one of the worst of his life, but somehow having Kara here made it all more bearable.
He lay there, holding her, playing with her hair for a long time and when she didn’t say anything, he figured she had fallen asleep. Which was what he needed to do if he could ever quiet his mind enough. But as he rolled over to turn off the light, Kara murmured, “Your mom is wrong, you know.”
He stiffened. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I know you don’t. But I couldn’t let you sleep thinking anything she said had any merit. She was scared and hurting and she lashed out at you. She’ll regret it in the morning.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“I know so.” She rolled over and this time it was her turn to curl herself around him. “You’re the best person I know, Lucas Montgomery, and anyone who says differently doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Okay?”
He nodded because he didn’t trust himself to speak. When she rolled back over onto her back, he got up and lifted her into his arms again so that he could fold the covers back. He put her back in the center of the bed, then crossed to his dresser, where he pulled out a pair of pajama bottoms he rarely bothered with and an extra large T-shirt.
After slipping the pants on, he crossed to the bed and sat beside Kara. She looked exhausted, her skin so ghostly white that the circles beneath her eyes looked even more pronounced. Sitting her up, he slipped the shirt over her head and then slid her arms through the armholes. It was huge on her, but at least it covered all the vital areas.
“Thanks, Lucas,” she murmured sleepily, already curling onto her side, her knees tucke
d up against her chest like a child.
“No problem, darlin’.” He stretched out behind her, draping an arm around her stomach so he could mold his body to hers. “Just go to sleep.”
Within minutes she had done just that, her body relaxing and her breathing evening out.
He lay there with her for about half an hour, waiting for sleep to claim him. But it never did. Not that he was exactly surprised. Despite Kara’s very tender and thorough ministrations—ministrations he could kick himself for allowing when he couldn’t do the same for her—his mind was still racing.
Worry over Kara warred with worry for his sister and the children she’d hit, who were, even now, in intensive care. How had this happened? Yesterday, his biggest worries had been dealing with his mother’s ridiculous spending habits, his sisters’ irresponsibility, finding another doctor to work for a pittance at the clinic. And Kara. He’d been worried about seeing her again, about how things would go between them. About what she would want from him when he was already so bogged down with everything else.
Today, this minute, the worries of yesterday seemed ridiculously small, especially when his sister, and those she’d injured, were in critical condition and Kara was still so sick.
Knowing he wasn’t going to fall asleep anytime soon, he rolled over and grabbed his tablet off the nightstand where he kept it. After logging on to the internet, he negotiated his way through the maze of passwords to get into his favorite medical database. Once there, he researched dengue hemorrhagic fever.
It was worse, and better, than he had imagined. On the plus side, if she’d had it six weeks ago and was still alive, the disease wasn’t going to kill her. At the same time, the fact that she was pregnant and still so sick meant that it could have done massive damage to the baby. According to the articles he found, the chances of the baby surviving through delivery were small. It wasn’t unheard-of—healthy babies had been born to mothers with DHF, but it wasn’t common, either.